Google Plus, Minus People

When Google Plus was first announced, it was really exciting to imagine the veritable nirvana of virtual happiness people were going to have using this radically new social network site designed by the saviors of the internet themselves, Google. Many were up in arms over Facebook's irritating and frequent reformatting of Facebook's amenities. Others were scared after reading countless articles about how Mark Zuckerberg was selling our demographics, IP numbers, personal information, browser history, and drunken St. Patrick's Day pictures to any Eastern European mafia with a few million to spend. Whatever the reason behind it, the excitement made it clear that Google Plus was set to drain away a serious percentile of Facebook's restless demographic if they could deliver a superior product.

Except that they actually did not. Instead of capitalizing on the excitement and unrest caused by one of Facebook's many unnecessary format changes by throwing the gates open to their fresh take on socializing, Google slammed the door and installed a bouncer. Google Plus trotted out an invitation-only system, supposedly put in place to beta-test the server. The flow toward Google Plus became so badly bottlenecked that the potential hordes fleeing Facebook found that there was no place for them to go but back to Facebook to complain about not being able to get on Google Plus. And guess what, all their friends were right there with them on Facebook, also complaining about not being able to get on Google Plus.

Getting a much-coveted invite didn't guarantee you anything, except the opportunity to type in your invite code and get told that Google Plus had reached its limit of people for the day. Meanwhile, your friend next door got in just fine and was no doubt enjoying the wonders that an unseen Google Plus was the wretch.

But eventually, everyone that still wanted to get on Google Plus managed to join up. They logged in, made a profile and started to explore only to find that Google Plus was as sparse on content as it was on people actually joining it. Conservative estimates put Google Plus membership at 30 million, boasting 10 million in the first two weeks. This sounds impressive until you consider Facebook's 800 million members, giving Google Plus just under four percent of Facebook's population. I did the math and it works out; to date only 3.5 percent of the people I know on Facebook have joined Google Plus; less than one percent have made a permanent switch to it. When I want to know what's going on, I check my Facebook stream several times a day. The stream moves so slowly at Google Plus that I check it several times a month at best.

But that's not to say Google isn't trying to catch up with Facebook. According to a report released Sept. 27, Google Plus is planning to add voice capabilities, allowing people to call you from your profile, as well as more photo services, customizable privacy filters, and a "wall" for people to write on. For some inexplicable reason, Google Plus also wants to create its own version of the internet's greatest point of shame, that fountain of misspelled misinformation Yahoo answers. But on the bright side, Google Plus still has Angry Birds to tide us over until these changes come into affect.